Fig. 83.—Man’s belt woven of feathers. The lower cut shows detail of pattern.
No. 89544 [1419] (Fig. 83a) has been chosen as the type of a man’s belt. It is 35 inches long and 1 inch broad, and made of the shafts of feathers woven into an elegant pattern, bordered on the edges with deerskin, and terminating in a leather loop at one end and a braided string at the other. The loop is a flat piece of skin of the bearded seal, in which is cut a large oblong eye. The weaving begins at the square end of the loop. The warp consists of nine long strands sewed through the inner face of the leather so as to come out on the hinder edge. The middle strand is of stout sinew braid, ending in a knot on the inner side of the leather. The four on each side are of fine cotton twine or stout thread, each two being one continuous thread passing through the leather and out again. The woof is the shafts of small feathers regularly woven, the first strand woven over and under, ending over the warp, the next under and over, ending under the warp, and so on alternately, each strand extending about one-fourth inch beyond the outer warp-strand on each side. This makes the pattern shown in Fig. 83b, a long stitch on each side, three very short ones on each side of the middle, and a slightly longer one in the middle. The strips of feathers forming the woof are not joined together, but one strip is woven in as far as it will go, ending always on the inner side of the belt, a new strip beginning where the other ends. The shafts of black feathers, with a few of the barbs attached, are woven into the woof at tolerably regular intervals. Each black strand starts under the first strand of the warp, making the outer and inner of the three short stitches on each side black. This produces a checkered pattern along the middle of the belt (see enlarged section, Fig. 83b). The woof strands are driven home tightly and their ends are secured on each side by a double thread of cotton sewed into the corner of the leather loop. One thread runs along the outside of the belt and the other along the inside, passing between the ends of the feathers about every ten feathers and making a turn round the outer thread, as in Fig. 84. The edges of the belt are trimmed off even and bound with a narrow strip of deerskin with the flesh side out and painted red. The binding of the upper edge makes an irregular loose lining on the inside of the belt. Across the end of the belt is sewed on each side a narrow strip of sealskin, and the ends of the warp are gathered into a three-ply braid 16 inches long, which is used to fasten the belt by drawing it through the loop and knotting it. An ancient bone spearhead is attached to the belt as an amulet by a stout strap.
Fig. 84.—Diagram showing method of fastening the ends of feathers in belt.
No. 89543 [1420] is a similar belt worn in precisely the same way, but with the black feathers introduced in a different pattern. The weaving is done by hand with the help of some little tools, to be described under implements for making and working fiber. Belts of this style appear to be peculiar to the Point Barrow region. Indeed, girdles of any kind are seldom worn over the jacket by the men in the eastern regions.
Fig. 85.—Woman’s belt of wolverine toes.
The women never wear anything except a simple strip of skin or the wolverine belt mentioned above. No. 89542 [1421], Fig. 85, is one of these. It is made of nine strips of dark brown skin from round the foot of the wolverine, sewed together end to end. Each strip, except the one at the end, has a claw at the lower corner (on some of the strips the bit of skin bearing the claws is pieced in) so that there are eight nearly equidistant claws making a fringe round the lower edge of the belt. There is a hole at each end into which is half-hitched the end of a narrow strip of deerskin about 8 inches long. These strings serve to tie the girdle. This belt is 33 inches long and 1½ inches wide, and has been worn so long that the inside is very dirty. Such belts are very valuable and highly prized, and are worn exclusively by the women.